


Back to School

by unwillingadventurer



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Sarah Jane Adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 11:24:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12506288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwillingadventurer/pseuds/unwillingadventurer
Summary: Clyde and Rani end up at Coal Hill School on a foggy November day, and the course of history is unravelling around them.





	Back to School

“This is amazing Mr. Smith,” Rani said excitedly as she tapped the side of the gigantic computer in the attic of 13 Bannerman road. “I’ve always wanted to know more about the Doctor. And Sarah Jane would never tell us much.”

“Sarah Jane is in the room,” said Sarah as she looked up from her computer, pushing her glasses down her nose. “I’ve told you all you needed to know. I told you the essentials. I can’t tell you everything, or we’d be here forever. Mr. Smith you really don’t have to indulge Rani.”

“It is not a problem Sarah Jane,” Mr Smith’s soothing computer voice replied. “Rani showed great interest.”

The attic door swung open nosily and Clyde entered the room carrying a tray of tea. The cups wobbled from side to side as he kicked the door shut, but luckily he reached the table without any accidents! He handed a cup each to Sarah Jane and Rani before sitting down next to where his friend was now sitting on the step, taking notes in a jotter pad. 

“Rani, it’s 8.am, we don’t have to do work before school.”

“It’s not work, Clyde. Mr. Smith’s been showing me some stuff about the Doctor and his companions. I’ve learnt so much already.”

Clyde nodded, suddenly interested, and looked at the screen which displayed images of the TARDIS, companions, and facts and information from over the years. He’d barely had much time to read anything and drink his tea when Sarah Jane stood up and asked Mr. Smith to withhold any more information from the curios teenagers.

“Oh why did you do that?” Clyde moaned. “I was just getting into that.”

“We have more pressing matters,” Sarah Jane said as she motioned for her two young friends to join her at her computer. “Temporal disturbances and time portals for one.”  
Clyde and Rani exchanged glances. 

“In Ealing?” said Clyde, unconvinced. Sarah Jane ignored his scepticism and showed them the computer scans and all the data gathered on the screen.

“So should we go out and investigate?” Rani asked as she quickly downed her tea. “Is there any trouble Sarah Jane?”

Sarah scratched her chin and thought for a moment, she didn’t want to worry them if she wasn’t certain of any immediate danger. “No, no, look don’t worry about it for now, you two get on to school ok?”  
Clyde sighed. “Another fun day then!”

Rani grabbed Clyde’s hand and began to pull him out of the attic as he was trying to drink the last of his tea without spilling it. He didn’t manage to drink it as most of it splashed on the floor as he was dragged from the room. Sarah Jane called after them. “Be careful, and watch out for time portals!”

 

….

“Watch out for time portals?” Clyde repeated as they reached the end of the street, and down the alleyway they passed every day on their way to school. “Like we’ll just happen to walk into one on the way.”

“Stranger things have happened Clyde, much stranger.”

“Yeah but on the way to school? I’m not usually that lucky.”

Rani laughed and linked her arm through her friend’s, and they started discussing getting a pizza in town after the day’s lessons- that was unless Sarah Jane needed their help. They’d only been talking for a few minutes about pizza toppings and all the stuff that Mr. Smith had shown them when they both stopped still and silent, looking around them in confusion, unsure of their surroundings.

“Did we take a wrong turn?” Clyde asked, staring up at an old brick building, a school, but certainly not their own one. It was much more old fashioned and a lot smaller.

“Where are we? I don’t recognise this school, do you? How did we get here?” Rani asked.

They listened as the school bell rang around them, and they watched as dozens of school children raced inside, all wearing smart uniforms- though many of the girls’ skirts were clearly folded up to be shorter in length. The girls all had short bobbed hair cuts or hair piled high on their heads, and all the boys had smart hair parted to one side. Finally taking a chance to witness what was around them, they both gasped in shock, only just realising that they too looked different.

“Rani, your hair! It’s big!” Clyde said, pointing at her beehive hairdo. Rani touched her hair and let out a shriek, not quite believing it. 

“You’re right, how did I manage that? And Clyde, your tie, it’s all neat. And what’s with the glasses?”

Clyde felt the glasses on his face and grimaced. “How did I not notice these?” he asked as he took the big black rimmed frames off and held them in front of him. “Talk about nutty professor.”

Rani took a moment to laugh but was soon confused as to why they’d randomly changed clothes as well as their location.  
“Clyde, we’ve gone through one of the portals, we must have.”

“We went through a time portal and still ended up at school? How’s that for fun?”

“Though why we’ve changed clothes, well, I’m not sure what that’s about.”

“Perhaps we’re here to blend in, ever thought of that?”  
“But don’t you see? This is what Sarah Jane was worried about. It could be dangerous here.”

Clyde pulled Rani aside, hoping that none of the pupils could hear what they were saying and suddenly cart them off to some kind of mental institution, they were still only just getting used to having to be secret about everything, it still caught them out sometimes. “Yeah but when did we go through? I didn’t notice, it just sort of happened, right?”

Rani thought for a moment. “Look, let’s just go inside the school, have a look around. I mean, what if we are here for a reason, we can’t rule that out.”

Clyde sighed. “Alright. I suppose we better find out where and when we are.”

 

…

They wandered aimlessly into the school corridor and looked around at all the school kids flitting about to various classrooms. Rani was admiring some of the girls’ hairstyles as she passed them.

“This has got to be the 1960’s,” she said. “Unless we’re being tricked to think it is.”

Clyde pointed to the notice board. “Coal Hill School? That sounds familiar right? Do we know this place already?”

Rani started reading some of the notices on the board, skimming over various papers about the football team, or the parents evening, or the change in the school dinner menu, even a tally of points for school houses. She noticed the date was November 1963 and she pointed it out to her friend.

“At least we know where and when we are,” Clyde said. “I just wonder if this is just some sort of accident. We just walked through the portal, could happen to anyone right?”

“But it happened to us, right after that discussion with Sarah Jane. That can’t be a coincidence can it?”

Clyde was about to reply when a man walked over to them and stood with his arms folded. He was a tall and handsome man, wearing a suit and the same emerald and black striped tie that Clyde was wearing. They wondered why he was staring at them.

“Rani, it’s not like you to dawdle,” the man said with a grin. “Langer…”  
He didn’t say anything to Clyde but raised his eyebrow at him and gestured his head in a manner of suggestion that Clyde should go into the classroom.  
“Take a seat you two, save the dates for after school.”

Clyde and Rani reluctantly sat down in the science lab, finding seats on the back benches. Clyde opened his bag instinctively and pulled out a crumpled notebook. On the front it read ‘Science with Mr. Chesterton, Clyde Langer- 4B.’

Rani whispered aside. “That teacher name is familiar to you right?”

“Yeah, and this isn’t a coincidence anymore. I mean, we’re already kitted out with the right stuff, like we’re meant to be living here already. The teacher knows us; I’ve got some old textbook. Look, my name’s carved in this desk. Someone wants us here.”

Rani read the graffiti scratched onto the desk. “Rani loves Clyde!” she read out with an annoyed cry as she tapped her friend on the arm. “Clyde! I don’t think so…”

“Is there a problem over here?” Mr. Chesterton said as he approached their bench and looked at them with a hint of suspicion. “You two are behaving very oddly today. We’re working on the dimensions, and I’d prefer it if you weren’t in another one, especially you Langer.”

They sat to attention as Mr. Chesterton began his lecture at the front of the room, his presence so obvious in the space. He was a very charming man, and he was constantly on the move around the classroom, never standing or sitting still in one place, his eyes on his pupils all the time. He didn’t seem frightening or strict though, he seemed easy going and calm, though he didn’t take things lightly, Clyde could already tell that Mr. Chesterton thought he was a troublemaker.

Clyde had started to drift off during Mr. Chesterton’s address to the class. He was not particularly clued up on science in his own time, and he had no clue about dimensions apart from what he’d encountered during his adventures around Bannerman Road. He woke to find that a girl was standing by the blackboard addressing the class. She was an unusual looking girl thought Clyde, pretty, but there was something different about her. The girl was getting agitated and Rani was sitting alert, nudging Clyde that something seemed suspicious about her. 

“It’s impossible unless you use D and E,” the strange girl told Mr. Chesterton.

“D and E, whatever for? Do the problem that’s set, Susan.”

“She’s right though isn’t she?” Clyde let out, hoping to gain a few brownie points with the sceptical science master. Rani scowled at him but he continued anyway. “Time and space is much vaster than any of us could imagine.”

The unearthly girl seemed surprised by his involvement and she stopped talking as everyone turned to look at Clyde instead. Mr. Chesterton smirked. “I see you’re challenging me again Langer. Any particular reason today why you’re so disruptive?”

“No sir, it’s just, that girl was talking and I sort of thought…”

Rani interrupted him. “It’s alright sir, Clyde was just winding you up. Take no notice.”

“I normally don’t,” he replied, and he was so confused at Clyde’s sudden outburst of an interest in one of his lessons, that he sent Susan to sit down without further explanation of the problem he’d set on the board. Mr. Chesterton sat down and rested his head in his hands. 

…

Rani and Clyde stood up after their intense lesson and gratefully headed toward the door. Going to school in the 1960’s was a totally different experience and wasn’t one they were keen on repeating any time soon. Before they left, Mr. Chesterton gave them some sheets of homework as they made their way past his desk.

“Oh Rani,” he said quickly. “Don’t forget to tell Miss. Wright about your interest in specialising with her.”

Rani smiled politely, pretending she knew what he was talking about and took the paper from him.

“Oh we’re in Miss. Wright’s history class next, aren’t we?” Susan said, butting in beside them. “You can tell her then.”

As they left the room, Susan continued to talk to them as though they’d already met before. Clyde and Rani played along; after all, everyone else seemed to know them.

“Come on slow coaches,” she called to them as they lingered on behind in the corridor. “You don’t want to be late. Miss. Wright looks friendly but she can have quite a temper.”

“We’re just coming,” Rani said to the girl and then turned back to Clyde. “This doesn’t make sense. Why does someone seem intent in making us go to school here? Everyone knows us, and these teachers seem to want us to do well, don’t they?”

“Yeah, and then there’s Susan, there’s something weird about her. She seems a little odd. And those names are so familiar.”

“Yeah. Mr. Chesterton, I mean, remember Sarah Jane told us about two professors in our time called Chesterton, they travelled with the Doctor. You don’t think?”

“That those two are the Doctor’s companions?” Clyde began. “Well it seems the most likely thing. Question is why were we bought here? And what does this have to do with anything?”

“Clyde, Rani,” said the voice of Miss. Wright from the doorway. “My lesson is about to begin, and I’m going to be teaching in the classroom not in the hallway, so I’d rather you both were inside.”

The woman was well groomed and presentable with back-combed hair and a smart skirt suit. She held a text book in her arms as she looked disapprovingly at them for being late. Clyde didn’t want to get on her bad side as he had with Mr. Chesterton, so he pulled Rani inside the class and they headed towards some empty seats beside Susan who was waving at them to join her.

 

Miss. Wright stood at the front of the class and put her book on the desk. She wrote the date neatly on the board in chalk and folded her arms. She was a lot more formal than Mr. Chesterton and she didn’t move around the room at all, always staying at her desk. “Now, we’re just going to take a few minutes to continue the board work from yesterday,” she told them. “So, Rani, if you could come up here and write down quickly how many shillings are in a pound.”

Rani’s face fell and she looked at Clyde for help. She shuffled in her seat uncomfortably. “Uh…shillings in a pound?”   
She looked at Clyde who was shaking his head and avoiding eye contact with their teacher completely.

“Rani, is something wrong?” Miss. Wright asked. 

“No miss, it’s just, this is going to sound crazy, but I…forgot.”

Miss. Wright sighed in disbelief, still not moving from her place at the front. “Well I suggest you look it up Miss. Chandra and remind yourself of something so ordinary.”

Rani’s face flushed with embarrassment. Clyde nudged her and whispered. “Ha! Now you know how it feels to not know all the answers.”

“Shut up,” she whispered back. “How am I supposed to know how many shillings were in a pound? What was I supposed to say ‘yeah miss, I don’t know because I wasn’t born for thirty years?’ When did we even go over to the decimal system?”

“Beats me. This is like the dark ages.”

“Don’t worry Rani,” Susan whispered beside them but having not heard their entire conversation. “I didn’t know either. I thought we’d be on the decimal system by now.”

Clyde and Rani exchanged suspicious glances. Who was this Susan?

…

“Oh Rani,” Miss. Wright said as she approached the girl at the end of the lesson. “We ought to have a talk sometime about your higher education plans. Maybe I could come and talk to your parents about it? You mentioned your father was a teacher himself.”

“My parents?” Rani exclaimed. “Well…yeah, I mean…yeah I’ll talk to them and get back to you on that.”

“Are you feeling alright? You don’t seem yourself today, neither of you.”

“We’re fine,” Rani replied nervously. “Come on Clyde, let’s get some lunch. See you later Miss. Wright.”

She pulled him out of the class by the strap of his bag and she quickly sent Susan away ahead of them, telling her they’d catch up with her soon.

“What are we going to do? My parents? My parents haven’t even been born yet!”

“Relax, Rani. It’s not going to come to that. We’ve just got to work out why we’re here and either do it, or not do it.”

“You’re right, there has to be a reasonable explanation and a way to solve this. Let’s go outside and think about what we know.”

…

“So, we know that Chesterton is a name associated with the Doctor,” Clyde began as they sat on a swing each in the local park, both swinging in opposite directions as the clouds began to form in the sky, and the fog collected around their ankles. “We know that Susan’s a bit iffy and knows stuff about the future too. She could be an alien herself, or a time traveller, or investigators like us.”

“Yeah, and the name Susan is familiar. I saw it on Mr. Smith’s programme.”

Rani suddenly stopped swinging and her face fell like she was remembering something. She reached into her bag quickly. She rummaged around.  
“I’ve been so stupid, remember I wrote this all down this morning when Mr. Smith was telling us all that information?”

“Yeah but you might not have that book anymore. It might be replaced by some 1960’s version like our schoolbooks were.”

“Oh yeah?” she replied as she pulled out the same jotter pad she’d been using in their own time. “Look, yes, look at this Clyde,” she continued as she flicked through the pages, showing him as she did so. “Susan is the Doctor’s granddaughter’s name.”

“How did Mr. Smith know all this?”

“I don’t know. UNIT, Torchwood, you look hard enough, all the information is there somewhere. Can’t believe it though, Susan is the Doctor’s granddaughter!”

“Can’t believe he has kids, let alone grandkids.”

“Clyde, this can’t be for nothing. What significance has this place got to time and space? We’ve got two teachers who we think travelled with the Doctor, and then there’s Susan. Did these three also travel together? I haven’t got any notes about that.”

“Wait a minute,” Clyde said. “In the classroom, Susan was going to talk about dimensions right in front of Mr. Chesterton, but I butted in for a laugh. What if she was meant to talk all spacey and Mr. Chesterton was going to find out her secrets.”

“Don’t Clyde!” Rani said with a shiver. “If that’s true, we may be messing up something important here. What if Mr. Chesterton and Miss. Wright are meant to be suspicious of her, and instead they’re now suspicious of us? Remember I was the one who failed to answer about the shilling thing, but Susan didn’t know it either. What if she was meant to ask her instead?”

…

 

Clyde swung higher on the swing in the playground as though he was a young child again. All of the real 1960’s children were in school so the only people around the park were adults with small toddlers, or elderly people, or businessmen on lunch breaks. Rani could see that people were looking at them wondering why they weren’t in school, and wondering who they were. Sometimes in their own time, someone would ask if they were playing truant, but in 1963 they seemed to be even more suspicious. 

“What are we going to do Clyde?” Rani asked as she got up off the swing and stood in front of him, forcing him to stop swinging.

“What would Sarah Jane do?” he questioned. 

“I say our best option is to go back to the school and find out what Mr. Chesterton and Miss. Wright are going to do. See if we’ve got in the way. If we have, well, then we have to set it right.”

“Yeah and get Susan to be their top priority again.”

“Remember when Mr. Smith was talking he mentioned something about the Doctor and a junkyard. He said it was the Doctor’s kind of first stop with his Earth and companion connections. Maybe that’s what we should be looking for, a place he’s going to be.”

“Right, this is awful to have to say,” Clyde said. “But let’s get back to school.”

…

Clyde’s head peered around the slightly ajar door of the science lab, and he saw Mr. Chesterton sitting alone marking some homework at the main bench. A moment later, Rani’s face appeared beside her friend’s, and she was nudging him to get a better view. When they heard someone walking towards them in the corridor, they both gasped and hid from sight behind the slightly open door. They were squashed so close together that Rani felt reasonably uncomfortable, and Clyde’s nose breathing was making her irritable with it. Miss. Wright walked past at that moment, and as she made her way into the classroom, Clyde and Rani hid behind the slightly ajar door again, making sure they could see and hear what was going on inside the room. 

“Not gone home yet?” Mr. Chesterton said to Miss. Wright as she sat down opposite him at the bench.

Miss. Wright gave a swift reply. “Obviously not.”

“Ask a silly question?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Alright I’ll forgive you this time,” he replied playfully.

Rani smiled. For some reason she found their playful teasing a little bit similar to her and Clyde’s, and if they were the Doctor’s companions, she could quite easily see why they were. They had all those wonderful qualities- curiosity, determination, intelligence, and compassion.

“They’re flirting,” Clyde noted making Rani giggle beside him. “Are these the two that end up married?”

“Well Sarah Jane said they were the Chestertons, so I assume so.”

“Unless of course that only happens because of the Doctor and now we might have messed that up too.”

“Clyde! Don’t make it worse; none of this is our fault. Obviously we were sent here for sinister reasons. Someone doesn’t want these two to meet the Doctor. That must be it.”

…

 

“Oh I’ve had a terrible day,” Miss Wright said with a sigh inside the classroom. “I was going to talk to you about Susan at the end of the week, but something has come up that’s a bit more important. Something has been worrying me.”

Mr Chesterton smiled. “A pupil?”

“Two pupils as a matter of fact.”

“Not Langer and Rani Chandra by any chance?” he asked. “They your problem too?”

There was a shriek from the doorway, but Clyde placed his hands over his mouth quickly to prevent any more sudden outbursts of shock. Rani hushed him.

“Oh they’ve been acting so peculiar Ian,” Barbara began as she shuffled in her seat. “I don’t know what to do. Rani was late for her lesson; she doesn’t know the answers to simple questions. Today she didn’t know how many shillings were in a pound.”

Mr. Chesterton nodded. “Clyde was suddenly interested and discussing things he had no clue about two days ago. And then there was the two of them loitering about whispering about strange things. At first I thought it was a secret teenage romance but…I don’t know…I think you may be right Barbara, they’re hiding something.”

“It gets worse Ian. I went to the secretary and thought I’d visit Rani’s parents. Turns out they don’t have an address for her. There was no mention of her parents even existing. The secretary assumed she must have misplaced them.”

Ian scratched his chin in thought and got up from his seat, circling the work bench and standing closer to Barbara. Rani could see his face clearly and recognised the look of curiosity in his eyes; it was the same look Sarah Jane got whenever there was something new to investigate, though Mr. Chesterton was far more relaxed. 

“That is a bit of a mystery,” Ian continued. “And did you check Clyde’s address?”

“Yes, that’s where it gets really strange. His address is missing too. There’s no indication that either Clyde or Rani were ever students here.”

Ian laughed nervously. “But that’s preposterous. I’ve been teaching them since year 1.”

Barbara frowned, and noticing Ian’s face fall in dismay, she nudged him. “What’s the matter Ian?”

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “It’s probably nothing, it’s just I really can’t remember Clyde and Rani first coming to the school. They didn’t start with the rest of the year; they’ve just sort of always been here haven’t they?”

At the doorway, Clyde looked at his friend. “He doesn’t really remember us. It’s all a trap. We just appeared, and they’ve been manipulated in some way to think we’ve been here the whole time.”

Rani nodded in agreement and continued to listen as the teachers began to discuss the strangeness of the two of them. Mr. Chesterton was more willing to let the situation resolve itself, claiming that there was probably a rational explanation for their strange behaviour, but there was something about Miss. Wright’s attitude that convinced Rani that she wasn’t going to give up on finding out the truth.

“What are we going to do Ian? I can’t very well bring this up with the headmaster; he’d think I was mad. We can’t just leave it be,” Miss. Wright said.

“Well then, we’ll have to find out for ourselves, won’t we?” Mr. Chesterton said as he leaned in close to his colleague, hardly any space between them. 

“Thank you for the ‘we’.”

“So what are we going to do?” Mr. Chesterton asked. “Ask them point blank?”

“I thought we could wait until they leave, drive, and see where they both go.”

Mr. Chesterton nodded that he agreed with the plan, and Clyde and Rani sprang from their hiding place as the teachers approached the door. The teenagers escaped down the corridor before they’d been seen, and both raced through the double doors and into the playground. They were breathless.

“They’re going to follow us!” Rani said. “How can we explain any of this?”

Clyde took her hand and they headed out of sight at the far end of the playground, near some old rusty and damaged bike sheds. “This is obviously how they got mixed up with the Doctor. They’re supposed to follow her. Could we lead them to follow Susan instead?”

Rani wasn’t keen. “I don’t know Clyde. They’d still be suspicious of us. We need to change all of this. We need to find out who’s doing it and stop us from ever being here. This isn’t supposed to happen.”

“Yeah but how do we find out who it is? Oh no! Teachers at ten o’clock!”

They both looked back to where the two teachers were slowly approaching them, both silent and determined, as though nobody else was there. They were getting closer, like hunters to their prey, and the teenagers could see no way of escaping. They were backed almost up against the wall.

“Who’d have thought two ordinary teachers coming for us could be this freaky? It’s like horror movie territory,” Clyde let out.

“They’ve seen us, just play cool. They’re not here to hurt us, they just care.”

Mr. Chesterton and Miss. Wright stood facing their pupils, standing casually so not to startle them or make it seem they were on their trail.

“Hi Miss, Sir,” Clyde stammered with a false chuckle. “What a lovely day it is.”

“Clyde, it’s raining,” Mr. Chesterton replied. “We won’t keep you both; we wanted to confirm something from the two of you. Miss. Wright doesn’t seem to have either of your correct addresses.”

“Where we live?” Rani asked nervously, looking at Clyde.

Miss. Wright’s eyebrow rose. “Yes, Rani, that would be what we mean. Just let us know and we can update the secretary’s files.”

“Bannerman Road,” they both said at the same time and then looked at each other quickly as if to admit they shouldn’t have said it. The teachers looked at each other curiously.

Miss. Wright noted the addresses down in her notebook. “Both of you?”

“We’re neighbours,” Rani said quickly. 

“That must come in handy for the dating,” Ian said with a smirk. 

Clyde and Rani laughed at the same time and they both backed away slightly, trying to edge away without making it obvious. The teachers exchanged worried glances- it wasn’t convincing that they were alright. Miss. Wright took one step forward as Rani and Clyde took one step back against the wall.

“Is everything alright?” Miss. Wright asked with concern.

“We’re fine,” Rani said as she took Clyde’s hand and started to edge further away to the right. “We’ve just got to go and get some books, haven’t we Clyde?”

Clyde nodded in agreement and they moved away and started to walk quickly in the direction of the school gates, not looking back as they did so.

“Wait a minute,” Barbara called, but it was too late, they’d already gone. “They didn’t tell us which houses in Bannerman Road.”

She sighed and turned away not wanting to admit defeat. “Well, we’ll just have to go over to this Bannerman Road later and make inquiries. Unless we ought to follow them now, just see what direction they go in.”

“Detectives Chesterton and Wright eh?” he said with a bit of teasing smile. He nudged her playfully.

“It ought to be the other way around, Ian, what with it being my idea and all.”

“Sorry, my mistake,” he replied as he tapped her on the shoulder and indicated that they should get moving if they were going to check on Clyde and Rani. It had started to rain but the teachers didn’t seem to be deterred, they just buttoned up their coats and headed towards the gates.

…

The streets started to look identical and the teenagers really had no clue where they were going as they realised they’d passed the same grocery shop twice. Clyde stopped, throwing himself onto the pavement and groaned at the blisters he’d gained from the uncomfortable shoes.

“So where is this junkyard?” Clyde said as he struggled to breathe. He massaged his feet quickly.

“It’s somewhere called Totter’s Lane,” Rani read from her jotter pad. “Mr. Smith quickly mentioned it. It’s got to be around here somewhere. We’ll have to ask someone.”

Clyde and Rani each went up to some passers by and asked for directions to the aforementioned junkyard. After they were both dismissed a couple of times for various reasons, and also told off for being out of the school gates in school time, they managed to find the way with the help of an old lady, and they headed off in the direction of the sinister and intriguing Totter’s Lane.

After a while of looking around, they came across the eerie lane they’d been searching for and ran up to the blue gates at the end. The gates read ‘I.M Foreman’ and were obscured slightly by the billowing fog making its way across the city along with the persistent rain. Rani shivered. Something about the place made her feel decidedly strange.

“Foreman? Wasn’t that the girl’s surname?” Clyde noted, looking at the wording on the gates. “Susan must have taken her name from here then.”

They both cautiously opened the gates together, and the gates parted with an eerie creak. Clyde led the way, holding up a lit match to illuminate the space around them. They circled the yard, both commenting on various bits and bobs, and complaining about the smell that accumulated around the area. Rani pushed aside various pieces of junk before she heard a gasp from Clyde who was on the other side of the junkyard staring at something in front of him.

“What is it?” Rani said as she approached him cautiously. She saw the police box as she uttered the line, and she backed up slightly, rubbing her eyes to make sure it was real. Clyde touched the side of the box, feeling it to see if it was really there and not his imagination. He laughed as he felt the vibration of the spacecraft.

“It’s the TARDIS alright,” he said smiling at his friend. She placed her hand next to his and felt the wood beneath her fingers.

“Yeah at first I wondered whether it was just one of the normal police boxes they had at this time.”

“It looks strange here doesn’t it?” Clyde added.

“How do you mean?”

“It looks lonely, out of place, stuck in a dark, deserted, stinky scrap yard, where it goes unnoticed.”

“That’s probably the point. If this is where the Doctor’s journey began, then he’s hiding away. Mr. Chesterton and Miss Wright are meant to stumble into this world and meet the weird and wonderful Doctor.”

Clyde laughed. “I bet they have no idea what they start.”

Rani stopped still and alert when she heard a noise coming from outside the doors. She signalled to Clyde, and they crouched down behind the staircase, trying not to gain attention from whatever was coming inside to find them. Rani listened carefully. She wondered for a moment if they’d see the Doctor- not the incarnations they’d seen before- but one of the early ones, not just early- but the original man himself. Would he be different? For a moment she wanted to meet him, thank him for travelling with Sarah Jane and saving the universe, even though he’d not done any of those things yet, she still wanted to thank him. 

“Something’s coming,” whispered Clyde. 

They both froze as they saw two aliens walk into the junkyard. They were small creatures, and the teenagers didn’t recognise their species. They were an orange colour and looked almost like birds with wings and an array of feathers on their bodies. They had large round eyes and there seemed to be three of the eyes dotted around their domed heads. Clyde was certain they’d have ample vision with them so well situated. They also seemed to give off a strange smell when they walked, but it was much more pleasant than that of the Slitheen! Rani nudged Clyde as she saw the two aliens gather beside the TARDIS. They seemed to be sniffing the box as if they were bloodhounds. 

“What are they doing?” Clyde whispered. “They’re just having a whiff of it. What weirdos.”

They examined the scene and looked closer, realising the aliens weren’t sniffing the TARDIS so much as sucking up the air around it. Little green particles seemed to fly around the space as they continued to suck the air around the ship. 

“Hey!” Clyde said aloud, standing up and giving away his position. “What are you doing to the TARDIS?”

Rani sighed and stood beside her friend, seeing no point of hiding now that he’d revealed their presence. The aliens stopped what they were doing and turned to face the two youngsters, laughing at them as they did so. They weren’t at all surprised to see them there.

“Clyde and Rani,” one of the aliens said. Its voice was low and scratchy and wasn’t at all like Clyde had been picturing. “We meet face to face.”

“What are you doing to the TARDIS?” Rani demanded.

“We are feeding off the new time energy, the energy you are creating by changing the course of history.”

“The changing that we had no say in,” Rani said. “We had no part in this. You used us for your own schemes.”

“And we will continue to do so.”

“Wanna bet?” Clyde said. “You see, you messed with the wrong people. For ages now we’ve been fighting evils and finding a better way of living our lives. We don’t give up that easily. We learnt a lot from Sarah Jane Smith.”

“We are very well aware of this Sarah Jane Smith, as we are of many of the Doctor’s friends,” the alien told him. “We find time travellers lives the most interesting. We chose you because you have some time energy of your own to feed upon. And this point in space and time is full of cosmic energy and significance to go with it.”

“But that’s your mistake,” Rani said. “Because we know what you’re up to and we know that this is only going to end in disaster. If you stop the Doctor’s first companions from travelling with him then what happens? Sarah Jane might never have travelled with him, never investigated aliens, and we may never have done it either. Then you won’t have our precious time energy to feed on anyway because we won’t be here.”

The alien thought for a moment but seemed undeterred. “We have no worry in such insignificant matters. If we alter the timeline, that makes us thrive more.”

The other alien approached Rani and sniffed at her. “Very intelligent this one, dripping with energy too, a great feast.”

“Stop sniffing her!” Clyde shouted, almost feeling a little embarrassed as he said it. “We may seem like two insignificant details to you, but us two teenagers have faced adversity before and we’ve always come up tops.”

Rani smiled at Clyde’s defiant nature. Sometimes it got them in trouble, but she admired him for standing up for their beliefs. There was a loud crash at the junkyard gates as two new figures moved into the space, knocking over a mannequin as they did so.

“Clyde, Rani!” Miss. Wright said as she and Mr. Chesterton found their way to their pupils’ side in the semi dark. “What are you doing here?”

“Barbara!” Mr. Chesterton said as his voice filled with panic. “What are those things?”

Miss. Wright clung onto Mr. Chesterton’s coat when she saw the aliens, and they backed away slightly unsure of their intentions. “Rani, Clyde, what’s going on here?” she asked.

“It’s an illusion, it must be,” Mr. Chesterton said, looking at the two feathery aliens.

“You followed us,” Rani said. “They still found the junkyard, Clyde.”

Miss. Wright stepped forward, ignoring her fear for a moment to confront the aliens.  
“What do you want with these children?” she asked them. “I’m not sure what game this is, but it isn’t funny.”

Mr. Chesterton stepped forward one pace too and held up a torch at one of the creatures. “I don’t want to use force against you but if you don’t explain yourself…”

Clyde ran forward and grabbed one of the aliens around the neck and held up a piece of scrap metal to it. “Do as we say or you won’t survive.”

“Clyde!” Rani shouted, surprised at his behaviour, but he was winking at her, expressing it was going to be ok. She believed him and let him continue.

“I mean it. We want time reverted. You’ve had your feast, now take time back and let things happen the way it’s meant to.”

The alien shuffled on the spot, looking anxiously back at its friend. It tried to race forward and disarm Clyde, but Ian held the creature back, grabbing his pen knife from his pocket and holding it up to the alien’s feathered body.

“I’ll use it!” Ian threatened. “Look I don’t know what’s going on here, and what these costumes are about but do as the boy says and everything can go back to normal.”

The alien under hold nodded that their time was up, finally realising that they were outnumbered and very weak in physical strength; they didn’t stand much chance in combat. “Perhaps we may feast elsewhere,” it said, now terrified for its own life. “Fine, we’ll revert your precious time but this won’t be the last you hear of us.”

Clyde reluctantly released the alien but they all kept hold of their weapons in case of any surprise attacks, not that any of them intended to use violence. The aliens began some sort of ritual, like a spell, and they stood chanting as an orb of orange light circled around them. Little green particles danced through the air, it looked quite beautiful. The teachers looked at each other, completely bewildered as to what they were witnessing.

“One day the Doctor’s life will be the greatest feast of all, and we will feed,” the alien warned as they were all engulfed in a bright white light. The teachers clung onto each other as the yard started to blur and shake around them.

“What’s happening?” Miss. Wright asked, but as soon as she’d said it everything turned to black.

…

Clyde and Rani woke up dazed and disorientated outside Coal Hill School. They looked at one another, still noticing they were wearing their 1960’s clothes and were definitely still in the past.  
“Oh no, it didn’t work!” Rani exclaimed.   
“You sure?”

Clyde grabbed her hand and they ran back into the school, along the dark corridors and waited outside Mr. Chesterton’s science lab. They could see the two teachers sitting across from each other on either side of a work bench like they had been before. 

“Susan Foreman you mean? She your problem too?” Mr. Chesterton asked his colleague inside the room. 

Clyde and Rani grinned as they watched the scene play out before them, no mention of their names at all, only of the suspicious pupil- the unearthly Susan Foreman, the Doctor’s granddaughter. 

“Time is restored! They’re going to go to the junkyard, follow Susan, and meet the Doctor, just like it should be,” Rani said with a chuckle. “Come on let’s try and get back to where we belong as well. And maybe we can stop at pizza hut on the way home, I’m starving.”

“Sarah Jane is never going to believe all this.”

…

Outside, they walked happily in the rain, glad that they hadn’t altered the Doctor’s timeline and the lives of all who travelled with him. They felt so relieved and so free, almost skipping as they made their way through the playground and onto the road.

“It’s funny when you think about it,” Rani said, linking her arm through Clyde’s. “That the Doctor’s journey with humans starts here. A foggy November day, two schoolteachers and a smelly old junkyard, nothing exotic, nothing fancy, just regular people meeting the Doctor and changing his life.”

“I suppose we all owe those teachers a lot, don’t we?”

“I really liked them too. I think the Doctor’s going to be really glad he meets them.”

Clyde looked upwards, taking one last look at the 1960’s sky. “And little do they know that they’re going to go on an adventure and fall in love, and one day get married. Its funny how it happens isn’t it? Two people, weird circumstances, ending up fancying each other.”

They glanced at each other awkwardly at the statement, and they made their way down the alleyway where they had first disappeared that morning. Within moments they were greeted with the familiar sounds of a car radio blaring music, and the familiar sight of the satellite dishes on the sides of the houses, and the image of kids listening to their i-pods, not looking where they were going. 

“Well looks normal again,” Clyde said. “Shall we go get that pizza?”

…

Ian and Barbara walked up to the gates at Totter’s Lane Junkyard on the foggy November afternoon and looked at each other with apprehension.

“I feel afraid, as if we’re about to interfere in something which is best left alone,” Barbara said.  
And their journey began.


End file.
